I’m currently off the wagon on exercising, but historically my criteria for selecting a gym has been twofold: whichever one is closest and cheapest. I don’t need a sauna, I don’t need a massage chair, I just do my time on the elliptical and then stagger home to my own shower. (Why the elliptical? Because I’m so lazy that I like not having to pick up my own feet. Just so you get the full picture here.) All this to say, I’ve never set foot in a fancy schmancy Equinox. And I’m certainly not the target customer for their newest membership option, “Optimize by Equinox.” Launching later this month, Equinox will run a smattering of tests on you and deploy a team of trainers, therapists, nutritionists, coaches, and “concierges” to customize a fitness plan for you. And all it costs is $40,000 a year!
Equinox is launching a new program, “Optimize by Equinox,” to provide members with a personalized health program that covers everything from personal training and nutrition plans to sleep coaching and massage therapy, per CNBC.
Members will pay $40,000 a year for this program, $3,000 a month on top of their regular Equinox gym membership. The minimum length of membership is six months.
The program will run in partnership with lab-test startup Function Health. First, Function Health will conduct comprehensive biotesting of 100 biomarkers, including heart, liver, kidney, metabolic and immune systems, as well as cancer markers and nutrients.
Next, Equinox will run its own fitness tests, including VO2 max, strength, and movement range.
After both sets of tests, an Equinox “concierge” will gather the data to design a personalized plan for the member — who will then work with a fitness trainer, a nutrition coach, a sleep coach and a massage therapist for a total of 16 hours of coaching each month.
The trainer will work with the member three times a week for 60 minutes, while the nutrition and sleep coaches will host two half-hour sessions a month. The massage therapist will administer one session per month.
Members in New York City and Highland Park, Texas, will have the first opportunities to try out the Optimize program. It will be available starting at the end of May.
The program will roll out to other states, and those with the membership will be able to train at Equinox’s elite “E Clubs.”
“Equinox has always been known to anticipate consumer needs and to come up with programs to support them,” Julia Klim, vice president of strategic partnerships and business development at Equinox, told Fortune. “Coaching by designing around movement, nutrition, and regeneration is something we have been doing for years and are now essentially upleveling it.”
“Living 100 healthy years doesn’t happen inside of a doctor’s office,” Jonathan Swerdlin, co-founder of Function Health said, per CNBC. “It happens in your daily decisions. And it also happens with the way in which you exercise, and Equinox really helps close the loop on that.”
$40K a year??!! Shut the locker room door! That’s just mean. $3,000 a month for a gym is way more than my monthly rent, and they’re not even offering a regular bed in this deal. Jeez, and I thought Tracy Anderson’s $900 a month was highway robbery… For $3,000 a month, I want nothing less than a zero gravity studio where all movement is easy and weightless. Instead of a sleep coach (it’s an activity I excel at) I want daily access to a roomful of rescued puppies for decompression. And for all post workout showers and redressing I expect a coterie of animated Disney fairies and/or woodland creatures on hand to assist. Those are my demands, Equinox!
So yeah, I’ll stick to my under $250 a year at Planet Fitness, thankyouverymuch. If and when I ever return, that is.
Give it some time. Let the customer reports come back.
if it actually amounts to anything- then maybe it has a chance.
But lets see 2 days (2 x 8 hours) x 12 months = 24 days at 40,000
Divided by 4 people listed (coaches etc) is 10,000 per person per year
To work 24 days a year
Is about 415 dollars per day (divided by 8 hours is 52$ an hour) being charged
(Did I do it right?)
Sounds like a normal rate, but it adds up super fast. I’d prefer to do the lab testing at independent pay-per-lab testing and figure out what Im deficient in, and do my own supplementation and adjust my diet to what I think would work, and save that money for investing.
If you just go to the lab company’s website the cost of the testing is only $499…. No need to join Equinox
The math isn’t quite right. According to the release:
“work with a fitness trainer, a nutrition coach, a sleep coach and a massage therapist for a total of 16 hours of coaching each month.”
Trainer: 3 @ 1hr/week = 12 hrs/month
Nutrition: 2 @ 0.5hr/month= 1 hr/month
Sleep: 2 @ 0.5hr/month= 1 hr/month
Massage: 1 @ 1hr/month= 1 hr/month
Total = 16 hrs/ month for $40,000
—> $2,500/ hr (assuming that everyone has the same hourly rate.)
PLUS your monthly equinox membership! Living in NYC, this doesn’t shock me at all and I’m sure will appeal to people who want all those things in a convenient package (it could never be me), but you’d think for that price they’d include the basic gym membership as well.
For 40 K I’d just get liposuction, botox and a nice new wardrobe.
$40000 per year. No thank you, but then I’m not the target clientele anyway. If you have too much money and want to pay that, more power to you.
I pay $200 per year for my gym and it comes with an indoor pool, sauna, steam room, tanning bed (I don’t use those), Hot tub, personal trainers (if you want them), food and drink bar and tons of different classes for every shape, age and size. Open from 6am until 10pm.
I have problems with my ankle and have to avoid high impact exercises. The aqua classes are great, and I really enjoy those. I’m dragging myself back to it on Wednesday, after I really slacked off last year and gained too much physic.
It sounds exhausting, but some people are obsessed with living forever so they will go for it. And they must think there’s a large enough market to support it.
The wealth divide in this country [and the world] is sickening.
The medical insurance driven inequitable access to “Healthcare” concierge services is north of 250k usd per anum these days. As in you fork over 250k to be able to access baseline services like exercising with a group of as rich, white and exclusionary as you racist women, light botox, facials, massages, light dermatologist, naturopath, nutrition and prescription access services in addition to a state of the art gym where anything from nazi yoga (pilates) to meditation, strength and conditioning is available. If you want plastic surgery, gastric anything, hyperbaric or occlusion therapy as an actual wealthy person anywhere in the world at anytime that’s offered at prices which only people with high net worths can afford. Ironically a couple of million to them is like 250 bucks a year to us!
Eat the rich 😠
Seconded ✋🏻
What’s saddest is that the people using this are probably already of normal weight and healthy. Wouldn’t surprise me to learn that there are people heavily utilizing Equinox and wanting more. Offering this could be a way to cut “overusers” off as much as it is a new services.